“At least you’ll die proud of yourself, then.”
✦ ✦ ✦
An enormous ray of light burst forth.
By the time the assailant had perceived it, it was already over.
His right side was forward, and his right arm, which was grabbing Hamazura’s neck, was blown off at the shoulder. That’s what it seemed like, at least—but that wasn’t actually what happened. His right chest had been completely torn off along with the right arm. Everything up to right under his neck had transformed into a cavern.
With a thump, Hamazura’s body fell to the ground. The severed arm was still digging into his neck.
“Wha…what…?”
In shock, the attacker looked back along to where the light ray’s firing source was and, a few hundred meters away, saw two girls standing there. One looked exhausted, wearing a yellow coat, and the other one was in a pink tracksuit. The one in the tracksuit had her shoulder under the yellow-coated girl’s arm to hold her up.
Shizuri Mugino’s balance was unstable because of the Crystals, and she was not in any state to fire precisely. Even if she’d had the strength in reserve to fire a few shots, she wouldn’t have been able to hit, so there shouldn’t have been an issue.
Which was why…
Rikou…Takitsubo…You’re telling me number four borrowed someone else’s help to correct her aim…?
The assailant didn’t realize his own words were no longer coming out of his mouth.
No, that’s not all. Even that bacterial wall bluff…It was only an opening move. If we’d had the information that Shizuri Mugino would be coming after us, it would have been easy to deal with them…He made us think it was a crazy possibility, just a bluff…and that put us off our guard, giving them the opportunity to take careful aim so they could hit for sure…
A few shots would have been able to wipe out the assailants.
If they all hit exactly where they needed to…
If they’d dodged even one, it would’ve been over. Actually, if they used the white wings coming out of their masks, they would’ve been able to repel it, seeing as it was only Meltdown.
So he…
✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦
Hamazura had taken the assailant down with the assault rifle out of nothing more than pure luck, beyond their plan. His job was to slow them down, buy time, and let Mugino’s power finish them off.
The wounded number four couldn’t have fought alone.
So they’d altered the playing field so that she could, even injured.
The assailants had fallen for every last one of their schemes.
“Damn it…all…”
The assailant’s deeply gouged body swayed unsteadily before sinking into the snow.
But his mask still moved.
With the power he had left, he tried to take Hamazura with him.
Until the assailant felt something hard on the side of his mask—on the side of his head.
It was the muzzle of an assault rifle.
“I can’t…believe it…”
The man belatedly regretted his mistakes.
Their orders had stated their first goal was to kill the Academy City rebels Shiage Hamazura and Rikou Takitsubo. Underestimating their opponent as a Level Zero meant they had failed to properly analyze their true combat strength.
“So this is…Shiage Hamazura…”
“No, it’s not.”
The young man pointing his assault rifle muzzle downward as he wobbled cut him off with a few words.
Then he said:
✦ ✦ ✦
“This is Item. And don’t forget it, even if you end up in hell.”
✦ ✦ ✦
There hadn’t been any reason.
His right arm just had a special power.
For example, assume a nuclear missile was about to be fired right in front of you. Say in your hand you held the control key, and the console that controlled its launch was in front of you.
In that situation, would it be strange to insert the key and stop the launch? Wouldn’t it actually be stranger to say something like I’m not an expert, so I don’t understand or It’s not my responsibility to risk my life when I’m not a soldier or police officer and just stand there idly without doing anything?
Someone like that wouldn’t be human.
They’d just be a toy with its power switched off.
He hadn’t needed a reason to fight. In fact, he’d felt guilt at doing nothing with the great crisis unfolding right in front of him. And he’d gathered the necessary quantity of the required components. From the start, he’d never tried to reach out for something he couldn’t attain—instead, he’d prepared over a long period of time, slowly, like arranging wooden boxes to form a set of stairs.
All for a single success.
For a victory that needed no greater reason.
And he had to be the same, he thought. Their natures were different, but they both had right arms possessing singular capabilities. And in actuality, he’d used that right arm to continue fighting. He’d probably never doubted the reason in the process. After all, he didn’t need to think about it. He had no reason to stand still, in fact.
And so they’d be fighting in the same way.
They should have been.
They should have been, but…
✦ ✦ ✦
Ka-kreeeeeeeee!! A high-pitched whine echoed over the Star of Bethlehem.
It was the sound of Touma Kamijou’s right arm deflecting the flow of Fiamma of the Right’s third arm.
Kamijou’s Imagine Breaker couldn’t cancel enormous power sources involved all at once. But he’d taken advantage of that condition. When an attack from Fiamma came, he’d position his palm on the side of it, pushing it as if to move a train onto another rail; sliding it away to divert the enormous attack’s trajectory.
How? Fiamma demanded.
His right arm’s output level varied depending on the strength of the enemy he had to defeat. And right now, Fiamma had designated his target as the calamity called World War III, which could destroy the entire planet and pollute the surrounding space with huge amounts of debris. The Star of Bethlehem, Misha Kreutzev, the flesh and blood of the right arm serving as the Imagine Breaker’s vessel…If he was successfully drawing out the appropriate capacity—then the current Fiamma should have had the power to emerge victorious alone over science, sorcery, and the war itself in which all that was mixed.
It was equivalent to the power to send all humans on Earth to the grave. He was trying to use it for salvation, but depending on its application, he could probably wipe out all of human history in an instant.
And yet…
“…How are you able to stop it?” he murmured.
He reaffirmed his grip on the remote-control Soul Arm.
In the skies, golden lights converged, and as Fiamma’s third arm moved, so, too, did those lights rain down upon Touma Kamijou.
“It has that much ability? All it can do is erase preternatural powers!! All it does is grab whatever force it can’t fully cancel out and bend it!! …My right arm can sink an entire continent into the ocean in one swing. It could dry up the oceans with a single thrust!! You were an adapter, and all you were supposed to do is hold on to that flesh and blood until the promised hour. The stem of a potato, returning to the earth once the harvest is over—and nothing more!!”
Guided by the 103,000 volumes, the power of salvation bared its fangs.
A rain of gold began to fall.
It showered down on almost half the Star of Bethlehem’s surface. Clusters of stone buildings toppled, one by one, and huge cracks appeared in the floor on which Kamijou and Fiamma stood. The pressure shoved the explosion out in every direction, and its destruction was so massive even Fiamma unintentionally covered his face with his third arm.
However.
Touma Kamijou did not fall.
His right hand was aimed straight up. He’d forcibly repelled the initial attack, then caused it to burst like a milk crown. He’d caused its aftermath to strike the deluge that followed, twisting the light rays’ paths completely.
How?
That boy’s right arm couldn’t have had that much power in it.
In the first place, no human could ever land even a single attack on Fiamma in his current state. It could be Vento of the Front or Acqua of the Back—though he could end them with a single swing of his right arm.
“You still don’t get it?”
Touma Kamijou’s mouth opened amid the ruins, the bombing from the skies having blasted away the ceiling.
His voice was low and heavy.
“You told me, remember? Your right arm’s power varies based on your enemy’s strength. The stronger your opponent, the more power you can draw out. And to get the maximum power out of your arm, you caused World War III to amplify the darkness in people’s hearts. In order to bring the enemy you needed to defeat out into the open and finish setting up for all this.”
So what?
Even now, as they spoke, World War III raged on. Tragedies were begetting tragedies, and the maelstrom of malice was spreading to every corner of this planet. Fiamma had multiplied his holy power by responding to that ugliness, and once his preparations were complete, he’d purify the entire world.
“But in that case, you could also say this.”
Kamijou rotated his right arm as if to feel out his shoulder, and as his joints cracked, he continued:
✦ ✦ ✦
“What if everyone’s hearts aren’t as filled with malice as you think they are? Then you wouldn’t be able to draw out the power you envisioned.”